Abstract

Work is being carried out on possibilities of limiting the content of
mercury in hard coal products by gravity concentration of run-of-mine
coal in the Branch of the Institute of Mechanized Construction and Rock
Mining in Katowice and on the Faculty of Energy and Fuels of the AGH
University of Science and Technology in Krakow. Under domestic
industrial conditions, gravity concentration is carried out with heavy
medium liquids and in jigs. Preliminary - pilot studies have shown the
possibility of mercury removal also by using the dry deshaling method
involving vibratory air separators. Mercury is mainly found in the
pyrite and the rubble formed by the mineral carbon, but also in the
organic carbon. Some of it is located in layers of coal roof fields,
which in the course of their exploitation go to coal. The mercury
removal efficiency during the gravity concentration process will depend
on the decomposition of the listed components in the density fractions.
The paper presents the results of investigations of total mercury and
total sulphur content in the separated coal fractions from four mines.
These contents were determined in fractions: –1.5 g/cm3 (conventionally
clean coal – concentrate), 1.5–1.8 g/cm3 (conventionally middlings) and
+1.8 g/cm3 (conventionally rock – waste). The results are summarized in
Tables 3–5 and in Charts 1–4. Conversely, graphs 5-8 show the
relationship between mercury content and total sulphur content in the
tested coal samples. The study, which can be called a preliminary
analysis of the susceptibility of the coals to gravity concentration,
showed that the dry deshaling method on the vibratory air separators
would allow significant amounts of mercury accumulated in the middlings
and waste fractions to be removed.

Abstract

In the processes of coal mining, preparation and combustion, the rejects
and by-products are generated. These are, among others, the rejects from
the coal washing and dry deshaling processes as well as the coal
combustion by-products (fly ash and slag). Current legal and industry
regulations recommend determining the content of mercury in them. The
regulations also define the acceptable content of mercury. The aim of
the paper was to determine the mercury content in the rejects derived
from the coal cleaning processes as well as in the combustion
by-products in respect of their utilization. The mercury content in the
representative samples of the rejects derived from the coal washing and
dry deshaling processes as well as in the coal combustion by products
derived from 8 coal-fired boilers was determined. The mercury content in
the rejects from the coal washing process varied from 54 to 245 μg/kg,
(the average of 98 μg/kg) and in the rejects from the dry deshaling
process it varied from 76 to 310 μg/kg (the average of 148 μg/kg). The
mercury content in the fly ash varied from 70 to 1420 μg/kg, (the
average of 567 μg/kg) and in the slag it varied from 8 to 58 μg/kg (the
average of 21 μg/kg). At the moment, in light of the regulations from
the point of view of mercury content in the rejects from the coal
preparation processes and in the coal combustion by-products, there are
no significant barriers determining the way of their utilization.
Nevertheless, in the future, regulations limiting the maximum content of
mercury as well as the acceptable amount of leachable mercury may be
introduced. Therefore, preparing for this situation by developing other
alternative methods of using the rejects and by-products is recommended.

Abstract

The paper presents the results of the energy analysis of the conversion
of solar radiation energy into electrical energy in Polish weather
conditions. The effect of sunlight and working temperature on the
photovoltaic module on its power curve P = f(U) is shown. STC and NOCT
conditions are described for which the manufacturers specify the
parameters of the photovoltaic modules. The manufacturers of
photovoltaic panels should give the PPV = f(E) characteristic for the
different values of the operating temperature of the modules. An
analysis of the economic efficiency of a photovoltaic power plant
investment of 1 MWp taking the current legal regulations for the three
variants into account was presented. Variant I – the investor benefits
from the support of public aid of operational only, Variant II – the
investor benefits from the support of public aid for investment in the
amount of PLN 1 million, Variant III – the investor benefits from the
support of public aid for investment in the amount of PLN 2 million. For
all variants, indicators for assessing the economic effectiveness of the
investment and the value of the auction price from the maximum price to
the price at which the project loses its profitability are determined.

Abstract

In this article, the contribution of renewable energy sources (RES) to
the worldwide electricity production was analyzed. The scale of
development and the importance of RES in the global economy as well as
the issues and challenges related to variability of these sources were
studied. In addition, the chemical conversion of excess energy to
renewable methanol has been presented. The European Union regulations
and targets for the years 2020 and 2030 concerning greenhouse gases
reduction were taken into consideration. These EU restrictions exact the
further development of renewable energy sources, in particular, the
improvement of their efficiency which is closely related to economics.
Moreover, as a part of this work, energy storage were described as one
of the ways to increase the competitiveness of renewable energy sources
with respect to conventional energy. A method for the conversion of
carbon dioxide separated from high-carbon industries with hydrogen
obtained by the over-production of green energy were described. The use
of methanol in the chemical industry and global market have been
reviewed and thus an increasing demand was observed. Additionally, the
application of renewable methanol as fuels, in pure form and after a
conversion of methanol to dimethyl ether and fatty acid methyl esters
has been discussed. Hence, the necessity of modifying car engines in
order to use pure methanol and its combination with petrol also was
analyzed.

Abstract

One of the most important business areas of the company is the
management of working capital. Energy companies that produce electricity
and heat are the main consumers of steam coal, so their decision
concerning stock levels is a major determinant of supply schedules.
These decisions depend on legal and technical requirements as well as
economic aspects. The seasonality of coal consumption jointly with
pre-purchase costs and storage costs has a straight impact on delivery
scheduling in a parabolic way. There is a divergence in expectations
regarding delivery schedules among the coal market participants (energy,
mining, transport companies). The purpose of this article is to present
the concept of pricing of steam coal and transport service on the Polish
market, assuming the use of price incentives, resulting in delivery
scheduling during the year. The article presents selected theoretical
content in the field of coal logistics and working capital management in
the company, the expectations of the steam coal market participant
regarding delivery schedules have been identified. The proposed concept
of pricing steam coal and transport service should be discussed further
in scientific and expert work.

Abstract

Nowadays, actions allowing for a reduction of anthropogenic mercury
emission are taken worldwide. Great emphasis is placed on reducing
mercury emission from the processes of energochemical coal conversion,
mainly from the coal combustion processes. One of the methods which
enable a reduction of anthropogenic mercury emission is the removal of
mercury from coal before its conversion. It should be pointed out that
mercury in hard coal may occur both in the organic and mineral matter.
Therefore, a universal method should allow for the removal of mercury,
combined in both ways, from coal. In the paper, a concept of the hybrid
mercury removal process from hard coal was presented. The idea of the
process is based on the combination of the coal cleaning process using
wet or dry methods (first stage) and the thermal pretreatment process at
a temperature in the range from 200 to 400 °C (second stage). In the
first stage, a part of mercury occurring in the mineral matter is
removed. In the second stage, a part of mercury occurring in the organic
matter as well as in some inorganic constituents characterized by a
relatively low temperature of mercury release is removed. Based on the
results of the preliminary research, the effectiveness of the decrease
in mercury content in coal in the hybrid process was estimated in the
range from 36 to 75% with the average at the level of 58%. The effect of
the decrease in mercury content in coal is much more significant when
mercury content is referred to a low heating value of coal. So
determined, the effectiveness was estimated in the range from 36 to 75%
with the average at the level of 58%.

Abstract

The paper presents selected issues related to the development of
international coal markets. World consumption of coal dropped for the
second year in a row in 2016, primarily due to lower demand from China
and the U S. The share of coal in global primary energy consumption
decreased to 28%. World coal production accounted to 3.66 billion toe
and it was lower by 6.2% when compared to the previous year. More than
60% of this decline took place in China. The decline in global
production was more than four times higher than the decrease in
consumption. The sufficiency of world resources of coal are estimated at
153 years – that is three times more than the sufficiency of oil and gas
resources. After several years of decline, coal prices increased by 77%
in 2016. The current spot prices are at the level of $80/t and are close
to the 2014 prices. In the European market, after the first half of the
year, coal prices reached the level of around 66% higher than in the
same period of the last year. The average price in the first half
amounted to PLN 12.6/GJ, which is close to the 2012 prices. The share of
spot trade in the total purchase amount accounted to approx. 20%. Prices
in futures contracts can be estimated on the basis of the
Japan-Australia contracts prices and prices in supplies to power plants
located in Germany. On average, the prices in supplies to these power
plants were higher by approximately 9% in the years 2010–2016 and prices
in Australia – Japan contracts were 12% higher than CIF ARA prices in
2017. Global energy coal trade reached about 1.012 billion tonnes in
2016. In 2019, a decline by 4.8% is expected primarily due to the
expected reduction in the demand in major importing countries in Asia.

Abstract

In the process of extraction and enrichment of coal waste, considerable
quantities of waste material are produced, mainly the gangue and coal
sludge, considered as waste or raw material. The main directions of the
management development of the waste rock are the production of
aggregates, the production of energy products and the liquidation works
in hard coal mines and the filling of excavations. The paper proposes
the extension of these activities to the use of waste material. The
possibility of using aggregates or extractive waste to fill open-pit
excavations has been proposed, also in areas within the reach of
groundwater and the possibility of building insulation layers of waste
material and the production of mixtures of hard coal sludge and sewage
sludge to produce material with good energy properties. The analysis was
based on the author’s own research and literature data related to
selected parameters of waste material. This paper presents our own
preliminary studies on the amount of combustion heat and the calorific
value of coal sludge combined with other wastes such as sewage sludge.
The proposed methods and actions are part of the current directions of
development, but they allow the extension of the scope of use of both
extractive waste and products produced on the basis of gangue or coal
sludge. Due to the frequent lack of the stable composition of these
materials, their current properties should be assessed each time before
attempting to use them. The fact that it is important to continue
research to promote existing economic use and to seek new activities or
methods has been concluded.

Abstract

CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) technology is one of the methods that
limit the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. However, the
high cost of capturing CO2 in this technology is a major obstacle to the
implementation of this solution by power plants. The reduction of costs
is expected primarily on the side of the capture and separation of CO2
from flue/ industrial gas. The article presents the financial
performance of the most popular amine technology (MEA) against
mesoporous material about MCM-41 structure obtained from fly ash,
impregnated with polyethyleneimine (PEI), for CCS installations. The
study was conducted for an investment comprising three key components
that provide a full value chain in CCS validation (capture, transport
and storage). The mineralogical studies and determination of the
physicochemical properties of mesoporous material produced from waste
materials such as fly ash allowed us to identify the best class sorbents
of MCM-41, which can be used in CO2 capture technologies. Developing an
innovative relationship not only allows 100% of CO2 to be removed but
also reduces operating costs (OPEX), primarily including energy by 40%
and multiple material costs relative to amine mixtures such as MEA.

Abstract

In spite of technological, logistic and economic difficulties, interest
in renewable energy sources in the world is consistently increasing.
This trend is also observed in Poland, mainly due to the urgent need to
tackle the problem of climate change, which is caused by the increasing
concentration of gaseous pollutants in the atmosphere. The paper
presents a short script of the issue of estimating renewable energy
resources in Poland in the context of creating local low carbon economy
plans at the level of municipalities/counties where RES sources should
be taken into account. The author proposed an individual approach to
estimate the potential of RES, taking the local conditions and the short
characteristics of the small and medium companies sector in Poland into
account. These companies have a great application potential to increase
the share of renewable energies and to improve energy efficiency in
their business. The actions, which are taken by the Ministry of Energy
in the field of civil energy development, enhancing local energy
security and the sustainable development of renewable energy resources
support the development of energy clusters covering one district or five
municipalities. In the article, the author presents data on the number
of companies possessing a concession for generating electricity in RES
installations in the power range from 40 kW to 200 kW. These companies
can largely be the nucleus for creating a local cluster in which
microgrids will be a key element.

Abstract

The aspect of climate change in the modern world is one of the broader
issues of global social and economic policy. Climate change implies a
modification of the business environment, especially the energy sector.
Any change in the conditions in which the company operates is the cause,
the effect of which becomes its financial situation during the relevant
period. Therefore, climate policy will play an increasingly important
role in shaping the energy of the future. At present, energy companies
are taking measures to process primary energy from fossil fuels, in
particular coal, in an efficient and environmentally friendly way. The
article presents the impact of international climate agreements on the
energy and coal industries. The latest agreement signed in Paris defines
a global plan to minimize the dangerous effects of global warming on the
climate arising from carbon emissions. The most important outcome of the
agreement was the unification of many countries with a common goal. The
European Union played a key role in signing the first legally binding
agreement in the world, which is also a forerunner in the carbon trading
system: EU ETS (European Union Emission Trading Scheme) The US-based CO2
emissions trading system has become a model for the European Commission.
In addition, the article highlights the correlation between the EUA (
European Union Allowances) and “ARA coal” prices as well as the role of
the coal market in price formation of emission allowances.

Abstract

Observing the situation in the power industry it is easy to see that
there are very deep changes in it. They rely primarily on moving away
from conventional energy to renewable energy. This is particularly the
case for energy in the European Union. Europe strives to be a forerunner
in renewable technologies and a leader in the fight against global
warming. The mining industry is being abolished and coal-fired power
stations are being displaced by renewable energy sources. This situation
is not only a result of EU directives but also of grassroots social
initiatives inspired by environmental groups. The new lignite openings
are being blocked, due to the lack of public acceptance, and the
construction of conventional power plants. They do not help economic
arguments for the development of energy based on coal, lignite, fuel
that is significantly cheaper than the other, or to provide potential
investors with the creation of new jobs. Also, coal investments are
suspended in other regions of the world. CoalSwarm coal research shows
that 2016 saw a dramatic fall in the amount of coal investment in the
world. Even in China and India, where most of the coal industry has
developed in recent years, about 100 investments have been suspended.
The situation in the US is unclear. Although Barack Obama signed the
Paris Agreement, current United States President Donal Trump has spoken
out about this agreement and in numerous speeches and is eager to return
to the dominant role of coal in the American economy. Poland still
maintains the carbon structure of the power industry, but the Minister
of Energy has announced that the new block at the Ostrołęka power plant
will be the last coal-fired power plant to be built in Poland. This
statement allows us to believe that there may be a return to Poland’s
energy policy in the nearest future, and the long-awaited document,
Poland’s energy policy until 2050, will determine the direction of
change for the coming years.

Abstract

Over the past decade, the growing demand for imported coal from
consumers (mainly Asian) coincided with supply constraints on the part
of major suppliers. The sequence of events is referred to as force
majeure. There were many events in the exporting countries, mainly
including the cyclone and floods in Australia (Queensland, the world’s
largest hard coking coal mining region). Imbalance between supply and
demand causes commodity prices to be subject to cyclical changes, but in
recent years the frequency and dynamics of these changes in the
international metallurgical market (hard coking coal, semi-soft coking
coal, PCI coal) has been extremely high. China, the world’s largest
producer and consumer of coking coal, played a leading role in these
events. Political action by the Chinese authorities regarding their
domestic mining and metallurgical industries and the coke-chemical
industry has made the country dethrone Japan since 2013 and has become a
global leader in metallurgical coal imports. The rise of China’s
importance in coal trading has become an important benchmark for
monitoring market trends and benchmarking benchmarks. The market has
become more bipolar and CFR China’s prices (in addition to Australia’s
FOB prices). The paper describes the path of pricing mechanism changes
in international trade contracts for metallurgical coal, against the
background of market conditions that generate these changes.

Abstract

Natural gas plays a significant role in the energy structure of many
world economies. Many of them are highly dependent on domestic resources
exploitation, other on its deliveries from non-domestic directions. In
Poland its importance was relatively low, but in recent years we can
observe an increase of interest in this raw material. The aim of the
paper is to present the role of natural gas as a primary energy carrier
and to determine its impact on the sustainable development and energy
security of Poland. The role of gas in the European Union restrictions
and development of the domestic economy is also a point. Theoretical
deliberations are focused on the most important features of the Polish
natural gas market. The article presents the most important national
regulations concerning the development of the gas sector in Poland. The
amount of natural gas resources are shown as well as indigenous
production of the fuel and imports, including the directions from which
natural gas is imported. Both political and geographical aspects of the
directions of natural gas acquisition are discussed. The level and
potential abilities of the diversification of the natural gas supply are
discussed. The importance of gas storages in underground gas
repositories is underlined. The authors point to the increase in the
diversification of raw materials in the structure of electricity, heat
production and the transition to pro-ecological fuels.

Abstract

The paper presents the idea of a prosumer energy cloud as a new service
dedicated to electricity prosumers. The implementation of the cloud
should generate a number of benefits in the following areas: settlements
between prosumer and electricity supplier, the development of
distributed energy sources in microprocessors and the development of
e-mobility. From the prosumer point of view, the proposed idea of a
prosumer cloud of energy is dedicated to the virtual storage of energy
excess generated in the micro-installation. Physical energy storage in
the cloud means recording the volume of electricity introduced into the
electricity system from the prosumer’s microprocessors. It is assumed
that the energy equivalent to the volume registered in the prosumer
cloud can be used at any time at any point in the network infrastructure
of the National Power System. Any point of network infrastructure shall
be understood as any locally located point of connection of an
electricity consumer provided with access authorization. From the point
of view of the power grid operators, the idea of a prosumer energy cloud
is a conceptual proposition of a service dedicated to the new model of
the power system functioning, taking future conditions concerning the
significant development of prosumer energy and e-mobility into account.
In this concept, electricity would be treated as a commodity only to
partial physical storage and above all to trade. In this model a key
aspect would be virtual energy storage, that is, the commercial
provision by the cloud operator (trading company) of any use of the
electricity portfolio by its suppliers. It should be stressed, however,
that in the prosumer’s energy cloud functioning, a significant factor
would be the cost of guarantees of the use of energy by prosumers at any
time and point of connection to the network. This results in the need of
taking the presence of certain market risks, both volumetric and cost
incurred by clouds operator, which can be minimized by passing a portion
of the accumulated volume of generated energy to the cloud operator into
account. It should be emphasized that this article presents the first
phase of the development of the concept of prosumer energy cloud.
However, it is planned to be expanded by the following stages, which
include the possibility of controlling and supervising the operation of
prosumer installations such as: sources, receivers and physical energy
stores, e.g. home energy storage or batteries installed in electric
vehicles. Ultimately, it is assumed that the proposed prosumer energy
cloud will be outside of the storage of energy (virtual and partly
physical) and that aggregation of prosumer resources will create new
possibilities for their use to provide a variety of regulatory services,
including system ones.

Abstract

With the upcoming implementation of the centralized capacity market in
Poland, capacity auctions will be organized where domestic power
companies will offer their available capacities. It is assumed that
bidding will be auctioned according to the so called descending clock
auction system with uniform-price (Pay-as-Clear), which will lead to the
market equilibrium price. Some analysts, however, are of the view that
it is more appropriate to organize capacity auctions in the Pay-as-Bid
formula, as this system should lead to lower prices that those of
Pay-as-Clear, hence lower costs of capacity purchase. However, this
opinion does not confirm the practice – theoretical considerations do
not take into account such important factors as the behavior of market
players and the tendency of bidders to accept a higher risk or the lack
of access to advanced analyses, and thus better information for all
market participants. This paper presents a hypothetical calculation of
the prices in the centralized capacity market using Monte Carlo
simulations. The results of the study confirm that the price level for
the Pay-as-Bid system, due to the asymmetry of information and the level
of concentration of the power generation sector in Poland would lead to
higher prices than for the Pay-as-Clear system on average by
approximately 2.5%. The implementation of the PAB system would,
therefore, be less efficient to electricity consumers.

Abstract

Mine drainage and discharge of salt waters into water bodies belong to
main environmental issues, which must be appropriately addressed by the
underground coal mining industry. The large area of exploited and
abandoned mine fields in the Upper Silesia Coal Basin, as well as the
geological structure of the rock mass and its hydrogeological conditions
require the draining and discharge of about 119 million m3/yr of mine
waters. Increasing the depth of mining and the necessity of protection
of mines against water hazard result in increased amounts of chlorides
and sulphates in the mine waters, even by decreasing the total coal
output and the number of mines. The majority of the salts are being
discharged directly into rivers, partly under control of salt
concentration, however from the point of the view of environment
protection, the most favorable way of their utilization would be
technologies allowing the bulk use of saline waters. Filling of
underground voids represents a group of such methods, from which the
filling of goaves (cavings) is the most effective. Due to large volume
of voids resulting from the extraction of coal and taking the numerous
limitations of this method into account, the potential capacity for
filling reaches about 17.7 million m3/yr of cavings and unnecessary
workings. Considering the limited availability of fly ash, which is the
main component of slurries being in use for the filling of voids, the
total volume of saline water and brines, which could be utilized, has
been assessed as 3,5–6,5 million m3/yr